February 24, 2017
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UPDATE: For more recent home growing data and laws, read Which States Allow You to Grow Your Own Recreational or Medical Cannabis?
If you want to grow your own marijuana, then there are only 16 states where you can live and grow it legally in the United States. If you don’t have a qualifying condition to get medical marijuana, then your options drop to just eight states.
This data comes from the new patient and consumer guide to recreational and medical marijuana guide from Cannabiz Media, the Little Green Book.
Specifically, the states that allow you to grow your own marijuana for recreational use are Alaska, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon. The states that allow you to grow marijuana for medical use are Arizona, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Knowing that you’re allowed to grow marijuana is just a small part of this story. You also need to understand what you can grow. Every state has different growing restrictions and limits.
Recreational marijuana grow limits range from four to 12 plants with a state average limit of 6.5 plants. The medical marijuana grow limits are slightly higher at a range of six to 18 plants with a state average of 11 plants. Furthermore, many states set restrictions on the maturity of those plants while others limit personal growing to people who meet specific hardship qualifications.
In Alaska and Colorado, you can grow up to six marijuana plants for recreational or medical use. However, only three of those plants can be mature. However, in California and the District of Columbia, you can grow up to six plants for recreational use and 12 plants for medical use, but no more than six of those plants can be mature.
In Nevada, you can grow up to six plants for recreational use and 12 plants for medical use, but you must live 25 miles from a dispensary. In Maine, you can grow up to 12 plants for recreational and 18 plants for medical use, but only six can be mature. In Oregon, you can grow up to four plants for recreational use and 10 plants for medical use, but only six can be mature.
Things get more complicated in Massachusetts where you can grow up to six plants for recreational use or a 60-day supply (up to 10 oz.) for medical use but only if you live more than 25 miles from a dispensary and obtain special authorization from the state.
Personal cultivation restrictions vary even more greatly in states that have approved medical marijuana but not recreational marijuana.
For example, in Michigan and Rhode Island, you can grow up to 12 plants of any size. However, in Arizona, you can only grow up to 12 plants if you live at least 25 miles away from a dispensary, and just six of those plants can be mature.
In Montana, you can grow up to 12 plants for medical use, but 12 must be seedlings and only four can be mature. On the other hand, patients in New Mexico can grow up to 16 plants of any size as long as only four are mature.
In Hawaii, you can grow up to seven plants, and in Vermont, you can grow up to nine plants with two of those allowed to be mature. Qualified patients in Washington State can grow up to six plants, but if they meet special exemption requirements, they can grow up to 15 plants.
In total, 59% of the states that have legalized medical and/or recreational marijuana allow some amount of personal growing of medical marijuana while 29.6% allow personal growing of recreational marijuana. Furthermore, all of the states that allow recreational personal growing also allow medical personal growing. Overall, more than two out of five (40.7) of the states that have legalized medical and/or recreational marijuana still do not allow personal growing of any kind.
You can see some of the highlights about personal growing of marijuana in the infographic below or get a copy of the Little Green Book for all of the details.
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